Trump Compares Russia and Ukraine to Children Fighting

As Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, sat beside him watching in silence, President Trump compared Russia and Ukraine to two fighting children who needed to work out their differences for a while before anyone could intervene.

“Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday in an Oval Office news conference. “They hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don’t want to be pulled. Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.”

“And I gave that analogy to Putin yesterday,” Mr. Trump added. “I said, ‘President, maybe you have to keep fighting and suffering a lot, because both sides are suffering, before you pull them apart, before they’re able to be pulled apart.’”

The fighting heated up again early Friday morning as loud explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Russia launched a broad attack that included drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, according to local and Ukrainian Air Force officials.

As of 3:30 a.m., at least three injuries had been reported in Kyiv, according to local officials.

Mr. Merz, who became Germany’s chancellor last month, had come to Washington hoping to persuade Mr. Trump to play a more active role in defending Ukraine by bringing unrivaled U.S. power to the task of forcing Russia to end its invasion of its smaller neighbor. But he got a very different response. Mr. Trump essentially threw up his hands, saying that there was nothing the United States could do right now to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end.

Mr. Trump repeatedly promised during the presidential campaign that he could make peace between the warring nations within 24 hours, but he now says he was being sarcastic.